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ISP hammers Bob Vila=
site
with spam suit

An Internet service provider filed a lawsuit against the operator and
marketer of home improvement Web site BobVila.com for violating terms of the
federal Can-Spam Act.

In the claim, filed
Thursday in U.S. District Court of California, Net service provider Hyperto=
uch
accused BVWebTies, the company that owns and operates BobVila.com, and one =
of
its partners, BlueStream Media, of breaching guidelines of the Can-Spam
Act by sending the ISP and its customers "unwanted and unsolicited=
"
e-mail that advertised a newsletter being distributed by the Web site.

Among other complaint=
s,
Hypertouch, which is based in Foster City, Calif., claimed that BobVila.com
sent 41 different e-=
mail
messages bearing "materially false or misleading" headers, or
subject lines, to trick people into reading the correspondence.

Passed in December 20=
03,
the Can-Spam Act was meant to help regulate spam by threatening various for=
ms
of punishment, including possible prison sentences, against individuals and
companies responsible for sending unsol=
icited
e-mail.

However, early indica=
tions
show the law has done
little thus far to discourage spa=
mmers.
A study released in February found that only 3 percent of bulk commercial
e-mail included a valid U.S. postal mail address for the sender and a link =
to
opt out of future messages, as required by the federal mandate.

=

Hypertouch said in it=
s suit
that the spam sent by the defendants could be linked to no physical address=
and
that the parties sent the communications to randomly generated and harvested
e-mail accounts, as well as to accounts that had submitted requests to opt =
out
through links of other messages. Hypertouch executives labeled the e-mail
campaign tactics as classic attempts to deceive consumers and questioned
Can-Spam's ability to deter such activity.

"Most ISPs advise
their customers to never reply to spam in an attempt to opt out, because th=
at will
only confirm for the spammer that an e-mail address is live," Hypertou=
ch
President Joe Wagner said in a statement. "BobVila.com and BlueStream
Media's actions graphically show how harmful the Can-Spam Act is by requiri=
ng
recipients to reply to the spam they receive."

The company's legal c=
ounsel
also criticized Can-Spam, calling the legislation "an open license to =
spam
with very little protection for the public." However, the attorney said
Hypertouch will continue to use the law to pursue companies that are spammi=
ng
its customers. The ISP has previously gone after individuals it believes are
responsible for sending "junk faxes," a paper-based cousin of e-m=
ail
spam, and is currently engaged in a class-action lawsuit against one person=
to
that end.

Some industry watchers
contend that spam
distribution has continued to grow since Can-Spam went into effect at t=
he beginning
of this year. Approximately 60 percent of e-mail sent in January 2004 was s=
pam,
up from 58 percent in December 2003, according to San Francisco-based
Brightmail, a spam-filtering company.